Wayland’s Historic Meetinghouse Invites All to Ring “Bells Across the Land”

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWayland families are invited to visit the First Parish Meetinghouse and ring the Paul Revere Bell to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the end of the Civil War.

Although it seems long ago, only 150 years have passed since the great civil war that tore the United States into two opposing nations ended and the weary soldiers walked home to every village in the country, including Wayland, MA. Approximately 72 men from Wayland went to war – 12 died, 5 were prisoners of war, and 15 received disability discharges. When the survivors walked into Wayland Village and saw the then- 50-year-old Meetinghouse, they knew they were home.

On April 9, 2015 our Country will join in a National Park Service-sponsored event to commemorate the surrender of Confederate forces under General Robert E. Lee to Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Called “Bells Across the Land,” the program calls for Bells to ring across the country in remembrance of this monumental moment and the subsequent end of the American Civil War. The Revere Bell hanging in the steeple of the 200-year-old First Parish Meetinghouse will raise a joyful noise in concert with bells across the Nation at exactly 3:15 p.m. that day.

Wayland residents are cordially invited to gather in front of the First Parish Meetinghouse at the intersection of Routes 20 & 126 at 3 p.m. sharp to hear a brief presentation about Wayland’s role in the Civil War before the bell peals for four minutes, one minute for each of the four years of the war. Residents are invited to grab the rope and ring the bell if they wish to do so.
Many thanks to the Wayland Historical Society for providing the historical information contained in this article.

Submitted by Jean Milburn

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